Hurricane Irene heads for Haiti

SANTO DOMINGO: Hurricane Irene barrelled toward Haiti and the Dominican Republic on Monday, after forcing Oscar-winning actress Kate Winslet and Richard Branson's relatives to flee the British tycoon's Caribbean island home. Winslet carried Branson's 90-year-old mother Eve out of The Great House on Necker Island, a territory in the British Virgin Islands that the entrepreneur bought in the early 1980s, as a blaze sparked by lightning took hold in the early morning hours. "She swept her up into her arms and got them out of the house as fast as possible," Branson, who heads the Virgin Group conglomerate, told Britain's ITV News. The actress said, according to Branson, "it's like being in a film set where you're waiting for the words 'cut' but they just don't come." All escaped unharmed. Irene reached hurricane strength as it passed over Puerto Rico in the early morning hours...